I just learned how to set up an alias for a specific user
by adding the alias to this file:

/home/user1/.bashrc

However, I also saw in the file that there is a section comment
which says "aliases and functions". What are functions in this
sense, how do I create them and what do they do? Are these
somehow functions, e.g. written in perl or c that I can call from
the command line?

Thanks.

They are bash functions.
From info:bash -
Functions are declared using this syntax:
[ `function' ] NAME () { COMMAND-LIST; }

Type in 'info:bash' in the konqueror web browser, or the application launcher and go to the section 'basic shell features' for details. Unless you prefer 'info bash' in the console.

thanks...

what is the difference actually between "info bash" and "man bash"
they seem to have different information
i wasn't aware of "info ..."
is that new? I used unix back in 1992 the last time and we always used "man ..."

thanks.

info provides an indexed manual. Some of the man pages are not maintained while the info pages are. The man pages deal with the syntax and are more concise. 'info bash' provides a book full of information.

They are produced differently. The info pages are produced from docbook-utils. The source can be converted to different types of documents, such as info texinfo files, html pages or pdf documents. Man pages use Troff source files.

Another way to view man pages is to use the -Tdvi or -t or -Tps options. They will produce a .dvi or .ps printable document that you can view in kdvi or kghostview respectively. For some of the man pages, you may find it worthwhile to print them out. Such as coreutils and bash.

p.s.
On recent Mandrake (10.1 CE and up) the -T option is no longer available. I don't know about red hat or fedore core.